


Against the current

by Artemis_Fandom_Things



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Symbolism, Uchiha Obito-centric, Unrequited Relationship, nothing graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:15:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23966002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis_Fandom_Things/pseuds/Artemis_Fandom_Things
Summary: Everyone has a Soulmate. Getting Soulmarks it's one step closer to finding them.After all, who doesn't want their Soulmate?-Obito knows who is Soulmate is right from the first Mark.He hates it.
Relationships: pre Hatake Kakashi/Uchiha Obito
Comments: 10
Kudos: 195





	Against the current

When Obito receives his first Soulmark, it’s in the middle of training. He feels a deep burning on the inside of his wrist, and he checks on it with a frown. He goes pale once he sees it, and he immediately throws up, forcing Minato to stop the training.

He goes home two hours later after having a check-up at the hospital, and one by a worried Rin.

He doesn’t look at his wrist again, covering it up with a bandage around it. The messy, childish scrawl of a name behind it is never forgotten, and Obito tries not to let it bother him too much.

The second Mark is another burning feeling, and it’s on his tenth birthday. The burning, however, is something he recognises as a cut that he finds on his arm, long but not that deep. Flowers bloom from it, elongated blue-purple petals surrounding a pale yellow stem, and he forces back his nausea in favour of ripping the flowers out and throwing them away. 

He later learns the name of that particular flower plant is Wolfsbane, and that it’s poisonous.

Another Mark comes, a month after the second, and it’s the same calligraphy as the first. Only, it’s a reminder to buy milk written on his arm. Obito goes to the bathroom and tries to wash it away, but his attempts stay unsuccessful. He leaps for the toilet right as he throws up, then he pulls down his sleeves, and he ignores the writings that appear on his skin every time they do.

He makes sure to wear long sleeves at all times, no matter the weather.

The fifth appears on Easter, a lone wolf sitting just a little above his right hip. It’s black and white, colourless, but Obito knows that it will change after his Soulmate gets his own tattoo, and they touch skin to skin. He excuses himself from Kushina’s kitchen and makes a beeline for the bathroom, locking the door behind him and throwing up over the sink.

Because it’s random how many Soulmarks a pair gets, even if Obito doesn’t receive a sixth for a full year he also knows that there are Marks that don’t show until a Pair has bonded. That, and he doesn’t even know if his Soulmate even got his Soulmarks yet.

Soulmarks start appearing when a person enters puberty, and Obito’s first Mark appeared not that much before his second, and he knows that him getting taller over the past few months isn’t just because he ate more, but… his Soulmate is still the same height. They still look unchanged, and Obito knows that he’ll get a confrontation as soon as a revealing enough Mark appears on their skin.

His sixth Soulmark appears a few months after his eleventh birthday, in a warm morning of July. He doesn’t notice until the same night, when he takes off his black contact lenses. He’s always had a particular eye colour, all thanks to his not-Uchiha mother, a dark indigo with purple mixed in, so it’s easy to spot the metal gray of his left eye that isn’t his. The worst is that he recognises it, and he makes the connection far too quickly for him to move, even if he didn’t already have a name on his wrist, so he ends up throwing up on the floor.

He finds himself hating it more and more, having a Soulmate. He never wanted one. He never needed one. He scratches at his arm, pushing down his nausea. Rin reprimands him for it, so he takes a pen and starts drawing nonsensical things on his arm until he no longer feels the need to.

Flowers keep blooming on his body, from cuts and bruises. A black eye, a cut lip, a broken finger. A stab wound during a mission that he can barely hide. The feeling of lighting on his fingertips, leaving burnt fingers and blooming Wolfsbane. He rips all the flowers out, throwing them away. Burning them to leave only ashes.

The more it happens and the more he wants to throw up. He succeeds at stopping himself only half of the time; the other half, he runs for the closets bathroom or a hiding place.

Very few words are written on his arms by his Soulmate. Mostly, it’s just quick reminders of something to buy, a time, a to-do list. Obito scratches at them, sometimes, if he has a pen or marker on hand, he covers them up. He can’t keep doing that once his Soulmate can also see on his arms what Obito writes on his, so he keeps on scratching until his arms are red and raw, and almost bleeding.

He’s twelve when it gets too much- when scratching at his arms, at his stomach, at his legs isn’t enough. It’s a fit of hysteria, when he feels like breaking down crying on the floor of his bedroom and scream. He doesn't really know what he’s doing until after he does, and when his vision clears up his wrists are all cut up and bleeding. 

His head spins, body shaking and a disgusting taste in his mouth. He slowly gets up and reaches the bathroom, then he proceeds to clean up the cuts. He doesn’t manage to finish that a horrible wave of nausea hits him full force and he’s doubling down in front of the toilet and throwing up badly.

It’s that same afternoon, at training, that he’s forced to face everything he kept ignoring for two years and maybe some more.

It’s Kakashi’s sharp intake of breath that startles him into looking, and Kakashi is staring at his right wrist with wide eyes and Obito goes pale, paler than he’s ever been. He feels pure fear when flowers bloom on both of Kakashi’s wrists, up to the middle of his forearms. They’re pink on the outside of the petals, shading to bordeaux on the inside, with a wide, bell-like shape. 

Obito recognises them. They’re Petunias, and he has a few plants in his small garden.

But then Kakashi is stalking towards him with an unreadable expression, and Obito stumbles back and barely manages not to fall. Kakashi reaches up to him too fast, and his sleeves are pushed up, first the left then the right. Thin, red lines barely starting to heal one after another, and a wrist warmer on his right one that Kakashi forcibly removes to expose a name written in a childish scrawl that only barely changed.

Kakashi stares at him with wide eyes, almost hopeful behind a wall of pretending not to be.

“You’re my Soulmate,” Kakashi says. He doesn’t speak any louder or any lower than he usually does, but in the silent ground his voice comes out clear. Minato and Rin hear him. They come forwards, congratulating them and with a show of being happy and supportive.

Obito only hears ringing, loud and annoying and unstoppable and his body is shaking. Everything is overwhelming and he wants to leave, but Kakashi isn’t letting him go no matter how much he tugs. Nausea hits him full force again, bile rising up and in moments he’s throwing up, falling on his knees and arms barely able to support him. He takes deep breaths in an attempt to calm down, to gain back some semblances of control. Hands touch him, lift him up and lead him under the shade of the trees, something he could appreciate if not for the vice grip on his arms, around his shoulders. Another tug and he’s sitting down, something cool being placed over his head as he’s helped to lay on the grass, his head resting on a soft surface.

Darkness welcomes him, and he hates the feeling of heat on his hip, his tattoo coming to life.


End file.
